Morgoth : The Archetype of Evil in The Silmarillion Bastien Cléré To cite this version: Bastien Cléré. Morgoth : The Archetype of Evil in The Silmarillion. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019. dumas-03181596 HAL Id: dumas-03181596 https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-03181596 Submitted on 25 Mar 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License Cléré Bastien 21505942 - Morgoth - The Archetype of Evil in The Silmarillion M1 TILE 2018-2019 Supervisor: Mrs. Engelibert Assessor: Mrs. Thornborrow 2 Table of Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................4 I.Religious Approach of evil.......................................................................................................7 1.Christian Influences of Morgoth.........................................................................................7 1.Their Past Glory..............................................................................................................8 2.Their Rebellion.............................................................................................................12 3.Their Fall......................................................................................................................17 2.Manichean Approach of Good against evil.......................................................................20 1.Good against Evil in The Silmarillion..........................................................................20 2.Morgoth in the Manichean approach............................................................................22 3.Critic of this Manichean Approach...................................................................................25 1.Saint Augustine of Hippo and the First Fault...............................................................25 2.Leibniz and the Greater Good......................................................................................29 II.Structural Literary Approach of the Character of Morgoth...................................................34 1.Morgoth in the Fantasy Genre...........................................................................................34 1.The Character of Morgoth............................................................................................35 2.The Creations of Morgoth............................................................................................40 3.The Actions of Morgoth................................................................................................46 2.Formalist Approach: the Character of Morgoth in the Folktale........................................49 1.Functionality of Morgoth in the Folktale......................................................................50 2.The Character of Morgoth in the Folktale....................................................................55 3.Analysis of sequences involving Morgoth...................................................................56 3.Semiotic Analysis of the Character of Morgoth................................................................60 1.Linguistic Views of the Signs of Evil...........................................................................61 2.Signs of Evil in The Silmarillion and their significance...............................................65 III.Discourse Analysis of Morgoth............................................................................................70 1.Speech Acts.......................................................................................................................70 1.Austin's theory: Locutionary, Illocutionary and Perlocutionary Acts...........................71 2.Searle's classification....................................................................................................77 2.Face Threatening and politeness.......................................................................................81 1.Face and Politeness.......................................................................................................82 2.Face Threatening Acts..................................................................................................86 3.Advice-Giving as a face threatening acts.....................................................................91 Conclusion..............................................................................................................97 Appendix..............................................................................................................100 Bibliography.........................................................................................................106 Webography.........................................................................................................108 3 Introduction Last of all is set the name of Melkor, He who arises in Might. But that name he has forfeited; and the Noldor, who among the Elves suffered most from his malice, will not utter it, and they name him Morgoth, the Dark Enemy of the World. […] From splendour he fell through arrogance to contempt for all things save himself, a spirit wasteful and pitiless. Understanding he turned to subtlety in perverting to his own will all that he would use, until he became a liar without shame. He began with the desire of Light, but when he could not possess it for himself alone, he descended through fire and wrath into great burning, down into Darkness. And darkness he used most in his evil works upon Arda, and filled it with fear for all living things.1 The literary character of Morgoth, the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, is truly a major figure in the work and imaginary world of the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. Best known for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, respectively published in 1937 and 1954, Tolkien is mainly known as an author of fantasy. Indeed, his major works can be set as the foundations of the genre we know today. Tolkien was, more than an author, a professor in medieval literature and in philology, traits which were coupled with a knowledge of more than ten different languages as well as a passion for poetry and drawing. Indeed, the history and the world of Middle-earth, where the stories of his two best known books are set, was at first made in order to give context to the languages Tolkien first invented: the Quenya and the Sindarin, the languages of the elves. Later, to these languages were added others such as the language of the horsemen of Rohan or the Black Speech of Mordor which are also part of the linguistic diversity and background that can be found in Tolkien's work. This is in The Silmarillion, paragon of the fantasy novel and published after the death of Tolkien by his son Christopher in 1977, that the historical context given to these languages is to be found. Indeed, The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, as they are named. That is to say the first days of the world and the events of the First Age and, resumed, of the Second Age which happen far before the events found in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings. It is a common answer, when asked about the main villain in the work of Tolkien, to name Sauron, the antagonist in The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, Sauron is truly a major evil in the fictive world imagined by Tolkien but, as we will see, he is not the most evil. As it is said 1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion. Ed. By Christopher Tolkien, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1977. p. 31. A summary of The Silmarillion can be found in the appendix of this study. 4 in The Silmarillion, Sauron was first a spirit of good but soon he was corrupted by the one who arises in Might : Melkor the Morgoth. Morgoth is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion for he is the main enemy of the Elves and the other free people in the First Age and also for he is the first and the source of all evil in the World, even after his fall. Following this point, our study will be concerned with the analysis of the character of Morgoth as an archetype of evil in Tolkien's work The Silmarillion. According to the Oxford Dictionary, an archetype is a very typical example of a certain person or thing. In literature, it is said to refer to a recurrent symbol or motif 2. Plus, the notion of evil is defined as something profoundly immoral and wicked by the same dictionary, as something harmful or tending to harm3. Hence, following these definitions of the major terms of our study, we can rephrase our subject by the analysis of the character of Morgoth as a very typical example of evil in The Silmarillion. Therefore, we can ask ourselves what are the elements, the notions, the theories applicable or found in the tale of the Elder Days which can set Melkor the Morgoth as an archetype of evil in The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien. In order to answer this question, we will study the different influences of the author when writing the character of Morgoth as well as